Wireless communication apparatus using fast fourier transforms to create, optimize and incorporate a beam space antenna array in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing receiver

ABSTRACT

A wireless communication apparatus which uses fast Fourier transforms (FFTs) in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) receiver which incorporates a beam space antenna array. The beam space antenna array may be implemented with a Butler matrix array. The beam space antenna array may be a circular array, vertical array, or a combination of both circular and vertical arrays, for providing the desired angular antenna coverage. In one embodiment, the antenna array is optimized because the FFTs are linear invariant transform operators, whereby the order of operations in the OFDM receiver can be interchanged.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/991,557, filed Nov. 18, 2004, which claims the benefit of U.S.Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/523,939, filed Nov. 21, 2003, whichare incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein.

FIELD OF INVENTION

The present invention relates to a wireless communication system. Moreparticularly, the present invention relates to wireless communicationapparatus using Fast Fourier Transforms (FFTs) to create, optimize andincorporate a beam space antenna array in an Orthogonal FrequencyDivision Multiplexing (OFDM) receiver.

BACKGROUND

Improving the capacity of a wireless communication system is perhaps oneof the most important areas in cellular technology that requires furtherexploration. Deficiencies in the spectral efficiency and powerconsumption of mobile systems have motivated wireless communicationsystem designers to explore new areas in the technology that will offercapacity relief. One of these new areas is the use of antenna arrays inwireless systems to improve system capacity.

Antenna arrays deal with using multiple antenna elements at a receiverand/or transmitter to improve the capacity of the system. For example,using multiple antennas in a wireless receiver offers diversity ofreceived signals. This proves to work well in fading environments andmulti-path environments, where one path of a signal received by oneantenna of the receiver may be subjected to difficult obstacles. In thisscenario, the other antennas of the receiver receive different paths ofthe signal, thus increasing the probability that a better component ofthe signal, (i.e., a less corrupt version of the signal), may bereceived.

One of the challenges facing the use of antenna arrays is that theyusually require a high degree of computational complexity. This isbecause the system will attempt to process each signal at each antennaby a separate digital baseband processing element which may lead toexcessive power consumption, hardware resources, and processing time.

OFDM is a technology that is being considered by different industrydrivers for use in many different communications applications, includingantenna arrays. It is desired to find ways to reduce the complexity ofantenna array receiver systems using OFDM technology.

SUMMARY

The present invention is related to wireless communication apparatuswhich uses FFTs in an OFDM receiver which incorporates a beam spaceantenna array. The beam space antenna array may be implemented with aButler matrix array. The beam space antenna array may be a circulararray, vertical array, or a combination of both circular and verticalarrays, for providing the desired angular antenna coverage.

The present invention implements an OFDM receiver and beam space antennaarray by re-using FFTs in an efficient manner. The antenna array isoptimized because the FFTs are linear invariant transform operators,whereby the order of operations in the present invention can beinterchanged.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A more detailed understanding of the invention may be had from thefollowing description of a preferred embodiment, given by way of exampleand to be understood in conjunction with the accompanying drawingwherein:

FIG. 1 shows a multiple beam OFDM receiver architecture in accordancewith a preferred embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 2 shows a simplified architecture of the OFDM receiver architectureof FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT(S)

The present invention provides wireless communication apparatus whichimplements an OFDM receiver including a beam space antenna array, suchas a Butler matrix array. A Butler matrix array is equivalent to an FFTprocessor implemented at the baseband.

The apparatus may include an OFDM receiver, a wireless transmit/receiveunit (WTRU), a base station or an integrated circuit (IC).

Hereafter, the terminology “WTRU” includes but is not limited to a userequipment (UE), a mobile station, a fixed or mobile subscriber unit, apager, or any other type of device capable of operating in a wirelessenvironment.

When referred to hereafter, the terminology “base station” includes butis not limited to a Node-B, a site controller, an access point or anyother type of interfacing device in a wireless environment.

The features of the present invention may be incorporated into an IC orbe configured in a circuit comprising a multitude of interconnectingcomponents.

In its simplest form, the number of beams that may be generated is equalto the number of antenna elements in the antenna array. The antennaarray may provide any desired angular coverage. The angular coverage ofthe antenna array may include a circular array, which provides 360degrees of simultaneous coverage.

In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, theOFDM receiver uses an FFT in its implementation for demodulation of anumber of carriers. Each carrier is then independently modulated by adesired modulation scheme, such as Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK),Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM), or the like. The signals receivedby the OFDM receiver are processed using the antenna array.

FIG. 1 shows one embodiment of a multiple beam OFDM architecture 100used to implement FFT re-use in an OFDM receiver and antenna array. Asshown in FIG. 1, the OFDM architecture 100 includes an antenna array 105including a plurality of antenna elements 105 ₁, 105 ₂, 105 ₃, . . . ,105 _(N), the outputs of which are fed to an OFDM receiver 150. Itshould be understood that the number of elements used by the antennaarray 105 may vary.

The OFDM receiver 150 includes a first stage FFT processor 110, aplurality of serial-to-parallel (S/P) converters 120 ₁, 120 ₂, 120 ₃, .. . , 120 _(N), N second stage FFT processors, 125 ₁, 125 ₂, 125 ₃, . .. , 125 _(N), and, optionally, a parallel-to-serial (P/S) converter 130which outputs a single serial data stream 135.

The first stage FFT processor 110 receives a plurality of beam signalsfrom the antenna elements 105 ₁, 105 ₂, 105 ₃, . . . , 105 _(N),respectively. The first stage FFT processor 110 performs antennaprocessing on the beam signals so as to separate spatial beams 1 throughN which can be processed independently.

In one embodiment, the antenna array 105 is a circular array whichprovides full azmuthal coverage. In another embodiment, the antennaarray 105 is a vertical array which provides only elevational coverage.In yet another embodiment, a combination of both a circular and verticalantenna array may be used, provided there are at least two, orpreferably four or more, antenna elements in each azmuthal or elevationplane. The signals from the antenna array 105 are processed by the firststage FFT processor 110, which may be a Butler matrix.

The first stage FFT processor 110 performs a beam space operation on theantenna signal vector, as described by Equation (1):Y=w^(H)V^(H)X   equation (1)where Y is the concatenated signal vectors received from antennaelements 105 ₁, 105 ₂, 105 ₃, . . . , 105 _(N), for N antenna elements,w_(H) is the Hermitian of a weight vector which performs an optionalwindowing function, which may be used to reduce sidelobes of regionsoutside of the beam space angular region. V^(H) is the Hermitian of theButler (FFT) matrix which transforms the antenna signal vector X fromelement space to Y in beam space. The Butler matrix transforms thesignal from element, or Cartesian space to beam space, or angular space.By transforming to beam space, it is possible to operate on signalswhich arrive within an angular spatial region directly, rather thanindirectly in the element space by using some arbitrary cost function.In other words, the channel as perceived by the receiver is transformedto exhibit an angular dependency, rather than a Cartesian dependency,which is the same dependency that the received signals have.

The Butler (FFT) matrix is defined by Equation (2) as follows:$\begin{matrix}{v_{m}^{H} = {\frac{1}{N}\frac{\sin\left( {\frac{N}{2}\left( {\vartheta - {m\quad\frac{2\pi}{N}}} \right)} \right)}{\sin\left( {\frac{1}{2}\left( {\vartheta - {m\frac{2\pi}{N}}} \right)} \right)}}} & {{Equation}\quad(2)}\end{matrix}$where θ is the m'th beam's pointing angle and N is assumed to be even.

The FFT processors 110, 125 ₁, 125 ₂, 125 ₃, . . . , 125 _(N), shown inFIG. 1, may be consolidated into a single beam space processor 210, asshown in FIG. 2, using a simpler linear operation as described by thefollowing Equation (3):[U]=[(V ₂ I ₁)×K×(V ₁ I ₂)]×[X]  equation (3)where V₂ is an M×M Fourier matrix for M sub-carriers,

is a Kronecker product, and I₁, is an N×N identity matrix. K is a bitreordering matrix which is determined by the size of V₂, V, is an N×NFourier matrix for N antenna elements and I₂ is an M×M identity matrix.

The capacity C of an OFDM system without a beam space operation isdetermined by Equation (4): $\begin{matrix}{C = {\log_{2}{\det\left( {I_{N} + {\frac{E_{s}}{M_{T}N_{o}}{HH}^{H}}} \right)}}} & {{Equation}\quad(4)}\end{matrix}$where I is the identity matrix of size N×N, E_(s)/M_(t) is the energyper symbol per antenna, N_(o) is the noise power spectral density, and His the channel matrix of dimension M_(R) by M_(T) for R receive antennaand T transmit antennas. In accordance with the present invention,Equation (5) determines the capacity C of an OFDM system which performsa beam space operation, (i.e., OFDM architecture 100), as follows:$\begin{matrix}{C = {\log_{2}{{\det\left( {I_{N} + {\frac{E_{s}}{M_{T}N_{o}}{HH}^{H}V^{H}}} \right)}.}}} & {{Equation}\quad(5)}\end{matrix}$Since V is an ortho-normal matrix, Equation (5) may be rewritten as:$\begin{matrix}{C = {\log_{2}{\det\left( {I_{N} + {\frac{E_{s}}{M_{T}N_{o}}\lambda}} \right)}}} & {{Equation}\quad(6)}\end{matrix}$where λ is the eigen-decomposition of the modified channel matrixHH^(H)V^(H). As a result, the rank of the modified channel may beoptimized by weighting beams appropriately. Either of the outputs of thefirst stage FFT processor 110 shown in FIG. 1 and the beam spaceprocessor 210 shown in FIG. 2 may be weighted using maximum ratiocombining by estimating the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of each beamoutput.

The first stage FFT processor 110 outputs beams 115 ₁, 115 ₂, 115 ₃, . .. , 115 _(N), to the S/P converters 120 ₁, 120 ₂, 120 ₃, . . . , 120_(N,) respectively, which output respective signals, (i.e., Msub-carriers), to the second stage FFT processors 125 ₁, 125 ₂, 125 ₃, .. . , 125 _(N), which convert each the signals associated with the beams115 ₁, 115 ₂, 115 ₃, . . . , 115 _(N), into the frequency domain forfurther signal processing, (e.g., minimum mean square error (MMSE)equalization, zero-forcing (ZF) equalization, matched filtering, or thelike). The outputs of the second stage FFT processors 125 ₁, 125 ₂, 125₃, . . . , 125 _(N) are optionally fed to the P/S converter 130 whichserializes the parallel FFT outputs to form a single output data stream135.

FIG. 2 shows a simplified multiple beam OFDM architecture 200 used tooptimize and implement FFT re-use in an OFDM receiver 250 and an antennaarray 205, in accordance with another embodiment of the presentinvention. Similar to the OFDM architecture shown in FIG. 1, the OFDMarchitecture 200 shown in FIG. 2 includes an antenna array 205 includingN antenna elements 205 ₁, 205 ₂, 205 ₃, . . . , 205 _(N), the outputs ofwhich are fed to an OFDM receiver 250.

The OFDM receiver 250 includes a beam space processor 210, whichperforms a bit reordering operation, and an optional P/S converter 215which receives N parallel beam carrier signals from the beam spaceprocessor 210 derived from signals received from the N antenna elements205 ₁, 205 ₂, 205 ₃, . . . , 205 _(N,) and serializes the signals toform a single output data stream 220. The bit reordering operationchanges the order of operations such that only one beam space processor210 is required. The beam space processor 210 uses an interleavingoperation to reduce the complexity of the beam space OFDM receiver. Thebeam space processor uses an FFT to implement a Butler matrix. The OFDMarchitecture 200 shown in FIG. 2 essentially performs the same functionsas the OFDM architecture 100 shown in FIG. 1, but in a more efficientand less complex manner.

While this invention has been particularly shown and described withreference to preferred embodiments, it will be understood by thoseskilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be madetherein without departing from the scope of the invention describedhereinabove.

1. A wireless communication apparatus configured to perform fast Fouriertransforms (FFTs) on received signals so as to separate spatial beamsderived from the received signals and process each beam independently,wherein the number of spatial beams is N, the apparatus comprising: (a)a first stage FFT processor configured to perform at least one FFTfunction on the received signals and output the N separate spatialbeams; (b) N serial-to-parallel (S/P) converters, each S/P converterbeing configured to receive a respective one of the separate spatialbeams; (c) N second stage FFT processors in communication withrespective ones of the plurality of S/P converters; and (d) aparallel-to-serial (P/S) converter in communication with each of thesecond stage FFT processors, wherein the P/S converter is configured tooutput a data stream based on beam signals processed by each of thesecond stage FFT processors.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein thefirst stage FFT processor is a Butler matrix.
 3. An integrated circuit(IC) configured to perform fast Fourier transforms (FFTs) on receivedsignals so as to separate spatial beams derived from the receivedsignals and process each beam independently, wherein the number ofspatial beams is N, the IC comprising: (a) a first stage FFT processorconfigured to perform at least one FFT function on the received signalsand output the N separate spatial beams; (b) N serial-to-parallel (S/P)converters, each S/P converter being configured to receive a respectiveone of the separate spatial beams; (c) N second stage FFT processors incommunication with respective ones of the plurality of S/P converters;and (d) a parallel-to-serial (P/S) converter in communication with eachof the second stage FFT processors, wherein the P/S converter isconfigured to output a data stream based on beam signals processed byeach of the second stage FFT processors.
 4. The IC of claim 3 whereinthe first stage FFT processor is a Butler matrix.
 5. An wirelesstransmit/receive unit (WTRU) used to perform fast Fourier transforms(FFTs) on received signals so as to separate spatial beams derived fromthe received signals and process each beam independently, wherein thenumber of spatial beams is N, the WTRU comprising: (a) a first stage FFTprocessor configured to perform at least one FFT function on thereceived signals and output the N separate spatial beams; (b) Nserial-to-parallel (S/P) converters, each S/P converter being configuredto receive a respective one of the separate spatial beams; (c) N secondstage FFT processors in communication with respective ones of theplurality of S/P converters; and (d) a parallel-to-serial (P/S)converter in communication with each of the second stage FFT processors,wherein the P/S converter is configured to output a data stream based onbeam signals processed by each of the second stage FFT processors. 6.The WTRU of claim 5 wherein the first stage FFT processor is a Butlermatrix.
 7. A receiver used to perform fast Fourier transforms (FFTs) onreceived signals so as to separate spatial beams derived from thereceived signals and process each beam independently, wherein the numberof spatial beams is N, the receiver comprising: (a) a first stage FFTprocessor configured to perform at least one FFT function on thereceived signals and output the N separate spatial beams; (b) Nserial-to-parallel (S/P) converters, each S/P converter being configuredto receive a respective one of the separate spatial beams; (c) N secondstage FFT processors in communication with respective ones of theplurality of S/P converters; and (d) a parallel-to-serial (P/S)converter in communication with each of the second stage FFT processors,wherein the P/S converter is configured to output a data stream based onbeam signals processed by each of the second stage FFT processors. 8.The receiver of claim 7 wherein the first stage FFT processor is aButler matrix.
 9. The receiver of claim 7 wherein the receiver is anorthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) receiver.
 10. A basestation used to perform fast Fourier transforms (FFTs) on receivedsignals so as to separate spatial beams derived from the receivedsignals and process each beam independently, wherein the number ofspatial beams is N, the base station comprising: (a) a first stage FFTprocessor configured to perform at least one FFT function on thereceived signals and output the N separate spatial beams; (b) Nserial-to-parallel (S/P) converters, each S/P converter being configuredto receive a respective one of the separate spatial beams; (c) N secondstage FFT processors in communication with respective ones of theplurality of S/P converters; and (d) a parallel-to-serial (P/S)converter in communication with each of the second stage FFT processors,wherein the P/S converter is configured to output a data stream based onbeam signals processed by each of the second stage FFT processors. 11.The base station of claim 10 wherein the first stage FFT processor is aButler matrix.